BENGALURU: The Ministry of Railways has sanctioned Rs 7 crore to prepare a pre-feasibility survey and alignment study for the proposed circular railway network for Bengaluru, running 287km, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced here on Monday.
Briefing newspersons at the Divisional Railway Manager’s office, after a closed-door review of the projects of Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited (K-RIDE), Vaishnaw said, “It will basically be a ring kind of system that will provide permanent connectivity to the city, and cater to its growth in the next 20 to 30 years. It will have ten inward connections and one complete ring.”
The Detailed Project Report will follow soon. “The rail network, still in the survey stage, will cover Nidavanda-Doddaballapur-Devanahalli-Malur-Heelalige-Solur-Nidavanda. It will have eight paths that would take away traffic from within the city to outside. It will cover 287km,” the minister explained. The project, covering the Circular Rail and paths, will be fully implemented by the Railways.
The quadrupling project between Bengaluru Cantonment and Whitefield was progressing well, he noted. “Bengaluru Cantonment has four new platforms which will help us start new services soon,” he said.
Asked for a deadline for Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP), Vaishnaw charged the previous government with neglecting the project, and said the Modi government was fully committed to implementing it. Ruling out any deliberate delay on the part of the Centre in granting approvals to projects submitted by the State, the minister said, “These are passenger carrying rails. The DPR has to be prepared in a very technical manner. No error can be allowed. Whenever the DPRs are returned or not approved, it is only due to technical reasons.”
‘K-RIDE needs technical staff’
Vaishnaw said he was apprised about a serious issue regarding technical capabilities within K-RIDE. “This is a very technical project and requires deep technical knowledge. Ultimately, people are going to travel on the system and any system in which human beings travel has immense complexities. I will take up this issue with the State government, which is a 51 per cent shareholder in the project,” he said. The recent appointment of a new part-time MD without technical knowledge to head K-RIDE upset rail enthusiasts and experts.
He said he had asked Railways to close the gaps in the joint venture project. Of the 1,309 stations selected for redevelopment in India, Karnataka had 57 stations. Karnataka’s overall investment in railway projects is Rs 47,346 crore, he said, adding that the annual budgetary allocation went up to Rs 7,561 crore from Rs 835 crore, prior to 2014. A total of Rs 2,40,000 cr was being used for the construction of railway projects.